


Darkness exists to make light truly count

by Livesinbooks



Series: Eobard dies, Barry's mother lives - AU [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Warnings to be added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-07-27 08:15:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16215083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livesinbooks/pseuds/Livesinbooks
Summary: Eobard Thawne dies the night he travels back in time to Barry's House and Barry's mother survives.Things changeTags and warnings to be added, rating might changeRelationships will be added later to avoid spoiling and because im not 100% sure yet which pairings to write





	1. Prologue: Failure

**Author's Note:**

> Someone wanted me to post the first chapter already, so I'm doing it.  
> Again, uploads might be very very slow  
> I'd be happy about comments, suggestions and ideas are also welcome since not everything is fully planned out yet  
> Wishes will be noted and maybe incorporated!
> 
> The title is from the song Uneven Odds by Sleeping at Last

Eobard was so close, he could taste his victory. He stretched his hands towards Barry, the child. He could easily snap his neck. Or rip out his heart. Then it would be over. The Flash would cease to exist and he would be the only speedster.

The fastest man alive. Eobard smiled. He liked that thought.

But then suddenly, he was pressed against a wall, The Flash looming over him. Eobard’s eyes widened. How did this happen? Didn’t he pay attention for a moment?  
He turned his head, and there was still the child, eyes wide in fear, on the floor his mother, watching her son, more scared for him than for herself. And in the doorway Barry’s father.

He had been so close to killing him.

But he had failed.

It hurt more than expected, when The Flash phased his hand through his chest and crushed his heart.

He had failed.


	2. Waking up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry wakes up from his nine month coma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said in the notes of the prequel that Cisco will be deaf, but I decided against it. 
> 
> Here are the reasons:  
> For one, I didn't write it into the prequel, so it would feel weird. 
> 
> But most importantly, I'm not deaf or hard of hearing myself, so I can't speak from experience. I did do research on it already and also on ASL, but I'm still worried about accidentally offending someone. 
> 
> This chapter was originally written with deaf Cisco, but I now changed it  
> I'm just more confident writing it like this

Barry was lying in a bed. That was the first thing he noticed. Then as his head slowly cleared, he heard the song that was playing. Poker Face by Lady Gaga.  
Then he started to make out a voice.

“What do you mean he likes this song?”  
“I might have looked up some things about him,” another voice replied.   
“Right, I forgot, you stalked him on Facebook. Oh no, don’t even try to talk yourself out of this, it’s stalking.”

Barry groaned and opened his eyes with effort.

“Caitlin, he's waking up!”  
"Yes, I can see that, get out of the way, I need to check on him.”

Two faces appeared in front of his, one of a young woman with curly brown hair and one of a young man with dark hair at shoulder length and brown skin.

Barry sat up abruptly and they dove out of the way. He jumped up and stumbled. “Where am I?”

“Calm down, you’re at STAR Labs,” the woman said while the man kind of stared at him. 

“What happened?”, Barry asked, looking between them. He wondered why the man was staring. Did he look weird?

“You were struck by lightning. You were in a coma.”  
He blinked. “A coma? For how long?”

She smiled sympathetically. “Nine months.”  
Barry felt his stomach clench. Nine months? So much could have happened in nine months.

He turned around, ready to ask more questions, but was distracted by his reflection in a mirror in front of him. He wasn’t wearing a shirt.  
Turning back to the other two, he stared at them.  
“Wait a second. Lightning gave me abs?”

Caitlin chuckled and handed him a dark blue sweatshirt with the words STAR Laboratories and the logo printed on it. He pulled it over his head.  
The man grinned and his ears turned pink. Barry frowned. He was still a little lightheaded, but he definitely noticed that.

The blushing guy slapped the woman’s shoulder who had been diving into a talk about how his muscles weren’t supposed to look like this, but she stopped and smiled apologetically.

“Give him a break, Cait. My name is Cisco Ramon, and this is Doctor Caitlin Snow, your personal physician.”  
He was still a little pink, but held the eye contact. Barry smiled. 

“I'm Barry. Allen.” He paused and rubbed his neck. “But you probably knew that already.”  
Cisco laughed.   
“We did, but it's alright.”

Caitlin shoved a cup into Barry's hand. “I need you to pee in this.”  
Barry blinked, a little overwhelmed.   
Cisco came to his aid again and took the cup with a disgusted face, putting it aside.  
“Don't attack him like that, he just woke up.”

“Excuse me? I’m not attacking him. He was struck by lightning, I need to make sure he’s okay.”  
Caitlin put her hands on her hips and Cisco crossed his arms. They seemed to have a staring contest.   
“Fine,” the doctor caved after about a minute. “I'll give you five minutes before I perform the tests. But nothing more!”  
Cisco smirked at Barry who grinned back, a little confused. 

“So tell me, Barry. How is it living with an awful person?”  
“Cisco!” Caitlin exclaimed.   
Barry blinked. “Do you mean Hartley?”  
“Obviously.”

“Right, I completely forgot. He told me about you two. You’re the Cisco he always complained about.”  
Cisco rolled his eyes and mumbled something under his breath that made Caitlin slap his arm.  
“Be nice. He's his brother.”

“It's okay,” Barry waved it off. “I'm used to people not liking Hartley. He can be… Difficult. But he's still the best big brother one could have.”

He thought back to when his parents took Hartley in as a Foster child. His parents had thrown him out when he was twelve because he came out to them. They'd insisted he wasn't old enough yet to know that, but when he didn't back down and agree that it was a phase, they'd told him to go pack and leave.

Barry had been sceptical of this older boy in the house all of a sudden, but they'd quickly become very close and he loves him a lot now. Hartley did always stand up for him and protected and supported him. He'd always been nice to him. Sometimes he couldn't believe how people dislike him, but he had seen how he can treat others. So he did understand. 

Caitlin pulled him out of his thoughts by taking a syringe. “I need a blood sample now. Then the cup with your urine, I'll have to check your heart rate and blood pressure-”

“Doctor Snow, why don’t we take it a little slower. I’m sure Mr. Allen would like to talk to his family first.”  
Barry spun around and there he was. Doctor Wells. The genius behind the particle accelerator, but also the man who fired and threatened his brother. So he frowned at him. “Doctor Wells.”

The man nodded. “It is good to see you awake, Mr. Allen. How are you feeling?”  
Something was off, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Maybe it was the dark circles under Wells’ eyes or maybe the deep frown. He looked at Cisco who shook his head lightly.

Barry thought about what he knew about the man. He had always been fascinated by him, despite Hartley’s experience. He remembered that Wells was married and his eyes widened. Did his wife die or get injured in the explosion? It would explain his awful state.   
But he couldn’t just ask that. If she did…

Barry locked eyes with Cisco and shrug a bit. Then he looked back at Wells who either didn’t see Cisco and his little exchange or pretended not to notice.

“I’m feeling fine,” he finally answered. “Really good. And you’re right, I want to see my family. I need to go home. But thank you for all you did for me.” Because even though he knew that he probably shouldn’t leave already, he was thinking about Hartley and their dad.

They probably have had nine awful months with him being in a coma. And he also had to see Iris and Joe West. He’d been friends with Iris since they were very little and as much time as they had spent at each other’s places, their dads had become friends. So they were family too.

“Wait,” Caitlin interrupted. “My tests! You can’t go, we don’t know what could be possible side effects of the lightning!”

Doctor Wells nodded. “It would be wise to remain here for the time being, Mr. Allen.”

Barry smiled apologetically at Cisco and Caitlin. “I’m sorry. I’ll… call you. Or come by. If something feels off. Or maybe also just to say hi. Thank you, really. But I need to go home.”  
He walked around the corner into the hallway, then realised he was still wearing the STAR Labs sweatshirt. He peeked around the corner.

“Can I keep the sweatshirt?”  
Wells rolled his eyes. “Yes, keep the sweatshirt.”  
Barry smiled. “Thanks!”

Then he left the facility and made his way to the nearest family member: Iris at Jitters. She could then walk with him to Mercury labs to see Hartley who could then drive to the precinct with him to see Joe and then wait at home with him for Henry to come home from work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback would be appreciated, comments always motivate me! 
> 
> Thanks for reading <3


	3. Coconut and Coffee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters are short so far, I know, I'm sorry. Maybe they'll get longer over time, I actually hope so.

Barry couldn’t help but smile brightly when he saw Iris through the window. She was filling up coffee at tables and looked exactly like last time he saw her. Despite not being aware of his coma, he missed her.  
She locked up when he entered Jitters and put the can of coffee down, hands covering her mouth.

Then she was running towards him. “Barry!”

He caught her in a hug and pressed his face against her neck. She smelled of her coconut shampoo and coffee. It was so familiar Barry relaxed completely. He was awake and well.  
Nothing was wrong with him, everyone was as it should be.

They let go of each other after a moment and Iris looked at him sternly. “Are you supposed to be walking again already? It’s been nine months!”  
“I’m fine, Iris, trust me,” Barry ensured her smiling.

Then one of the other baristas dropped a tray with mugs and everything seemed to slow down.  
Barry saw the tray falling in slow motion. He felt like he could reach out and catch it-  
It shattered on the ground and he flinched. What was that? What the hell was that?

Iris turned around and asked the woman if she needed help, but Barry didn’t really pay attention, he was still spooked by what just happened.  
Maybe he was just still not fully awake. It had to be that. It would all be fine after he ate something and then slept for a couple hours.  
Iris waved a hand in front of his face and he blinked.  
“Sorry, what?”

“I asked if you already saw Hartley or our dads. Are you sure you’re alright?”  
Barry nodded quickly. “Yeah, sure. I didn’t see them yet, no. I had hoped you’d walk to Mercury Labs with me, fill me in on everything that happened. I know Hartley, he will just spend the whole time complaining about Cisco and Doctor Wells.”

He grinned a bit and Iris chuckled.  
“Fine, let me quickly get my shift covered.”

She left to talk to one of her co-workers and Barry looked around. Jitters didn’t change in those nine months. The people didn’t either, on first glance.  
He wondered if some of the guests here lost someone in the explosion and was selfishly glad that his family was alright.

Iris returned after a couple minutes and took his arm. “Come on, I need to tell you about my boyfriend. Remember Detective Pretty Boy?”


	4. Puppy eyes

Barry had never seen Hartley run this fast in his whole life and he had also never hugged him like that.

“Fuck, Barry, never do that again!”  
“Language,” Iris chimed in amused.

Hartley held Barry at arm’s length then and looked him up and down. “When did you wake up? Why didn’t they inform me?”

“Only about an hour ago, they didn’t have time to tell anyone, I left pretty quickly.” He smiled sheepishly and his brother hugged him again. “You dumbass. We need to get you home before you hurt yourself, walking around like that after nine months in a bed.”

Barry shook his head. “First I want to see Joe, then we can go home. Is dad working?”

The question seemed to make Hartley sad even though he tried to hide it as always.  
“Yeah, he is. Has been for nine month basically, he was barely home anymore.”

The last time that had happened was after Barry’s mother had passed away from cancer when he was sixteen. Henry had buried himself in work at the hospital to get his mind off his dead wife.  
He stopped after a year and sat Hartley and Barry down, explaining and apologising. He also promised to never do something like that again and to always be there for them.

“But he promised…”  
“He was scared of losing you too, Bar, you can’t blame him. I don’t blame him.”

Barry sighed. “I know… Let’s just go visit Joe.”

Hartley raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me? I’ve got work to do, I can’t just go. I have a perfect record, which I need after Wells fired me. Doctor McGee is still watching me extra closely because she can’t think of anything why I got kicked out of Star Labs. She thinks I’m secretly a villain or something!”

Barry pouted.

“Oh no, don’t you dare try the puppy eyes on me.” Hartley crossed his arms in front of him.

But his younger brother just tilted his head a bit and tried to make himself smaller.

Iris behind them was trying not to laugh. She knew this well enough, Barry used his adorable face a lot to get what he wanted. And nobody could resist it, not even Hartley.

And just like Barry predicted, Hartley rolled his eyes and pushed his glasses up a little.

“Give me a minute to ask my boss.”

He left them and Barry turned to Iris, grinning triumphantly. “Works every time.”

“You, Barry Allen, are evil,” she joked chuckling. “But now that you’re with Hartley, I’ll go back to Jitters. I can’t let Amy cover for me forever. See you tonight, Joe and Henry will make dinner together for everyone for sure.”

Barry smiled brightly. “I can’t wait. I missed their cooking.”

“You said you weren’t aware of being in a coma?”  
“Well I can still miss stuff, can’t I?”

Iris rolled her eyes smiling.  
“Well I consciously missed you. See you.”


	5. It's good to have you back

At the precinct Barry got another hug, this time from Joe, and a couple of pats on the shoulder and back from co-workers there, as well as some kind words. And his basically second father promised to make dinner with Henry tonight and invited Hartley as well.

So Barry was pretty happy when Hartley drove them to their house. He was still living there with his dad, his brother lived in his own apartment a couple blocks away.

Hartley had offered him a couple of times that he could move in with him to get out of their old house, but Barry loved the place too much to let go just yet. College had been enough time away from home.

Everything reminded him of his childhood and that was a good thing. He had been a happy child, especially with Hartley as his brother. The happiness had taken a break when his mom died, but he got over it. Mostly at least. 

He still couldn't let go of the past though, so he continued to live there.

Another reason was that Barry was pretty sure his father would be lonely if he moved out as well.

 

When they reached the place, he jumped out of the car and Hartley handed him his key with a roll of the eyes.  
Barry just grinned at him and ran up to the door.

Nothing had changed inside, which was comforting after being in a coma for nine months. So much could have been different, it would have been awful. 

“Don't you want to lie down for a while? Dad won't be home before six, he has a difficult operation today.”  
Hartley looked at him, openly concerned now that nobody could see. He didn't like showing his emotions to the public.

Barry smiled.  
“Alright. But only if you make me some hot cocoa.”  
Hartley grinned back at him. “Fine, get to bed, you demanding puppy.”

 

Once in bed with a cup of hot chocolate in his hands, Barry slowly realised just how tired he actually was. Maybe it was a bad idea to get up and walking already after nine months. 

“Can you stay?” he asked Hartley quietly, not wanting to be alone right now. 

His brother ruffled his hair. “Of course.”

 

When Barry woke up the next time, the house smelled of food and his stomach growled. He checked the time. 

It was almost seven in the evening.

Hartley next to him was gone, but he heard voices from downstairs.

So after a change of clothes and a trip to the bathroom, he walked down the stairs, a smile on his face. 

He found his father and Joe in the kitchen, cooking in harmony, looking really happy, so he decided not to disturb them right now and to say hello to his dad later. 

In the living room Iris and Hartley were sitting on the couch, watching-

“Guys turn that off!” Barry yelled and turned around.  
“I can't believe you're watching this with me in the house!”

Hartley chuckled.  
“I told you he'd freak out because he missed the release of season five.”

“Dad said he doesn't have to start work until next week. He has time to catch up.”

“Turn it off,” Barry whined. “The spoilers, Iris, the spoilers!”

“You saw five seconds of it,” Hartley said amused, but the sound stopped and Barry could turn around again.

“How could you watch Game of Thrones without me?” He looked at them accusing. 

Iris shrugged. “Were we supposed to wait when it was right there? Would you have waited?”  
Barry pouted. “Fair point.”

Before they could keep arguing about this, Joe called them to dinner.

 

Barry walked back to the kitchen with quick steps and hugged his dad, finally being completely home again.  
“I missed you, son,” Henry said quietly.  
“Missed you too, dad.”

“He didn't, he couldn't have missed anyone since he wasn't conscious,” Iris chimed in, sitting down at the table. 

He flipped her off behind his back. 

“Barry,” Henry said warning and Barry ended the hug with a sheepish grin. 

“She should be nice to me, I was in a coma!”

“You're awake now, so I can annoy you all I want.”

Joe laughed and Henry shook his head with an amused smile. 

“It's good to have you back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm participating in NaNoWriMo this year, so I'll be busy in November  
> So I might not update here for a while, sorry in advance!


	6. Responsibility

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) isn't going well for me, but I got motivated to continue here, so I guess that's a win!  
> I'm torn tbh  
> I don't want to completely skip canon scenes from the show because then it would feel incomplete, but I also don't want to write every scene that takes place in the show and add the stuff that changes  
> So I tried mixing both, skipping scenes and writing canon scenes, I'm not sure how I like it  
> What do you think?

The next few days Barry tried to get used to this new-old life. For him, it felt like a day had passed, but in reality, it had been nine months, so many things were different, especially subtle things, and that confused him more than once.

But then there was this weird after effect from the lightning. That’s at least what he called it. Sometimes the world around him seemed to slow down, and once... He couldn’t explain it, but one day at the precinct he saw a perp reach for an officer’s gun, and… in the blink of an eye, Barry was next to them and pushing the guy’s hand away. Then he stood back at the exact same spot like before and wanted to believe that he just imagined the moment.

But his left hand would stop moving. Way. Too. Fast. He hid it at his chest and excused himself from Joe who frowned worried, then left the precinct. Behind the building between dumpsters, Barry looked down and extended his hand slowly. It was still vibrating.

“What is happening to me?” he mumbled, scared now. Did the lightning damage his nervous system?

He took a step forward, or rather planned on it, but instead, he ran into a dumpster. Turning around, he decided that he was either going crazy, or he was fast. Very fast.  
There was no other way for him to find out but to test it, so he took a deep breath and ran.

Barry’s plan had been to stop before the police car, but he couldn’t control it, so instead, he ran into it and the rear window shattered.  
That probably should have scared Barry even more, but all he could think was, that this was no nerve damage; this was a gift.

He looked around and saw the narrow alley in front of him, and a grin spread on his face before he started running through it.

Energy crackled through him and the wind blew around his face. It was a thrilling sensation, that came to an abrupt end when he ran into the open back of a truck. A man looked at him confused and he grinned broadly. “Awesome.”

A test run with the Star Labs crew, a broken arm, a living Clyde Mardon and a fight with Joe later, Barry stormed into the Star Labs cortex.

“I wasn’t the only one who was affected by the particle accelerator explosion, was I?”

Cisco and Caitlin shared a look with Dr. Wells. It made Barry even angrier. This was the man he had looked up to. And he was responsible for something like this!  
“We don’t know for sure.”

Wells got up from the chair he had been sitting on and took a step towards Barry. But he backed away.

“You said the city was safe, that there was no residual danger. But that’s not true, so what really happened that night?”

They shared another look.

“The accelerator went active, we all felt like heroes, and then… it all went wrong.” 

Wells showed him on a monitor.

“A dimensional barrier ruptured, unleashing unknown energies into our world. Antimatter, dark energy, x elements.”

“But those are all theoretical,” Barry interrupted.

“And how theoretical are you?” 

He didn’t have an answer to that. He only knew that something was going on, that more bad people like Mardon could have powers like theirs and that the police wouldn’t have a chance.  
Wells told him about how they don’t know who was affected and that they tried to find those metahumans, that was how they called them. 

“We have to stop him before he hurts anyone else!” Barry stormed to the door, human speed.

“Barry, that’s a job for the police,” Wells stopped him. 

“Yeah, I work for the police.”

“As a forensic assistant.”

Barry gritted his teeth. “You’re responsible for this. For him.”

Wells took a few steps forward until he was right in front of Barry.

“Don’t talk to me like that. I lost everything. I lost my company. I lost my reputation. I lost my wife. I know that I’m responsible for all of this and you have no idea what that feels like. So don’t talk to me like I’m trying to escape the blame.”

Barry bit his lip. He didn’t think of that…

A look over at Caitlin and Cisco showed both of them with sad faces. They probably wouldn’t have upset Wells like that. He felt bad for storming in like this.

“I’m sorry, Doctor-,” he started.

“Don’t,” Wells interrupted him. “I can’t stand heartfelt apologies. Get out of my sight.”

Barry hesitated, then clenched his fist. “Fine,” he snapped and turned around, leaving the building.

Barry ran. He ran without really thinking about where he was going. His mind went back to the night his mother died and his eyes got teary.

He was forced to stop when his jacket caught on fire and he quickly shrugged it off and threw it onto the street. When he looked up he was faced with a sign: STARLING CITY 5 MILES.


End file.
